Chelsea Shows Star Calzolari’s Koi, Auerbach, Schutz

"Untitled (Tall fish tank)" (1978-1980) by Pier Paolo Calzolari. The work is a 12-foot-tall lead plank, partly submerged in a fish tank with a lone koi swimming back and forth. Photographer: Jason Wyche/Marianne Boesky Gallery and The Pace Gallery via Bloomberg

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- May brings blockbuster shows to New
York galleries trying to woo collectors attending the top
auctions and fairs.

The Chelsea district boasts Richard Avedon’s photo murals
at Gagosian; Anish Kapoor’s giant sphere at Gladstone Gallery;
and angst-stoking London pictures by Gilbert & George at Lehmann
Maupin and Sonnabend.

The season’s surprise is Pier Paolo Calzolari, who helped
bring about a melding of two galleries, when Marianne Boesky and
Pace broke through their common wall, creating 6,000 square feet
of space.

The 69-year-old artist, an original member of Italy’s Arte
Povera movement, hasn’t shown in the U.S. since 1988. He uses
organic and ephemeral materials such as wax, water, fire and
frost, often on a monumental scale.

In one room, the ceiling has been dropped and covered in
wax, with small blue neon tubes flashing like flames and an old
kettle brewing coffee.

Even the humblest materials are gracefully assembled and
rich in allusions. “Untitled (Tall fish tank)” from 1978-80 is
a 12-foot-tall lead plank, partly submerged in a fish tank with
a lone koi swimming back and forth.

Tiny Pig

A lead-covered wooden door stands in the corner offering an
entrance to nowhere; on the floor, a tiny motorized pig keeps
trying to get in, its legs moving with frantic futility.

In Pace, the focal point is a bath tub with a spouting
fountain inside and a hollow egg on a string, above.
Occasionally, the installation emits gurgling sounds.

Windy Day

Things are a lot messier in “Piano in the Rain” by 35-year-old Dana Schutz, at Friedrich Petzel Gallery.

Colors explode as the artist assails canvas with brushes,
scrapers, squeegees and oil crayons to create various moods and
textures.

Dysfunctional scenes abound: One pink-eyed character of
unclear gender is setting his or her ear on fire. Another is
injecting himself with heroin on a windy day with objects flying
around.

The largest painting, “Building the Boat While Sailing,”
is 10 feet by 13 and recalls Gericault’s “The Raft of the
Medusa.” Painted against a bright-orange sky, the characters
regurgitate, hammer, pass out and plunge into the sea while the
construction seems to be going nowhere.

Prices range from $45,000 to $250,000. The show runs
through June 16 at 537 W. 22nd St.; +1-212-680-9467;
http://www.petzel.com.